How to Draw Blood Cattle

How To Draw Blood

1. Use a fresh bleeding needle with every cow. Cross-contamination of blood will affect the results.

2. Screw the Vacutainer needle onto the needle holder.

3. Insert the Vacutainer tube into the other end of the needle holder until the stopper touches the back portion of the needle. Do not puncture the stopper. Hold these assembled materials in one hand.

4. Lift the cow’s tail with the other hand.

5. Insert the needle about 1/2 inch deep and perpendicular to the tail at the underside, midline and at about 3 to 6 inches from the base of the tail. In this region, there is a longitudinal, midline ridge of skin through which you push the needle.

6. Blood will appear at the junction of the stopper and the back portion of the needle once the vein is punctured. If it does not appear, pull the needle out slightly and insert in a different direction until the vein is punctured.

7. Once blood is seen, push the tube onto the needle. Be sure to keep the needle under the skin since vacuum will pull blood into the tube and if lost, blood cannot be collected.

8. Use a second tube if this happens.

9. Collect 2 cc or more of blood.

10. Withdraw the needle from the skin and remove the tube from the tube holder.

11. Sequentially label the sample vials with the ear tag ID using a permanent marker on the vial LABEL. Labeling the tube will assist the laboratory in sample organization and help expedite results.

12. Place the tube in an ice rack or refrigerator until shipment.

13. Unscrew the Vacutainer needle from the needle holder and discard the needle into a “sharps” container and re-use the needle holder.

16. Utilize FedEX, USPS or UPS to ship samples to the laboratory. Make certain that the BioPRYN Pregnancy Test Submission Form accompanies the samples.

17. Payment for services may be enclosed in packaging.

18. Don’t forget to recheck pregnant cows tested at 28 days again between 70 and 80 days as a certain percentage will experience early embryonic death loss. Confirmation pregnancy checks are very important for this reason.